The present invention relates to an informing system for directing an appropriate maintenance person in a short time to an apparatus that is in an abnormal state when an abnormal condition occurs in a large-scale information processing system that is used in a facility requiring relative urgency such as a hospital, a care center for the old, a computer center or a security guard company.
The information processing system usually works continuously day and night. If an abnormal condition occurs in the information processing system, it is necessary to recover promptly even if it is midnight, since the abnormal condition may cause a large loss. It is important for the prompt recovery to contact with a suitable maintenance person quickly in accordance with the abnormal condition of the information processing system. Therefore, a development of an informing system has been desired for informing a maintenance person quickly as well as certainly of an abnormal condition in an information processing system.
The present invention relates to a communication controlling method, a terminal and a recording medium for caller ID information. Particularly, the present invention is used for a modem that can support the caller ID information service so that plural terminals connected to a telephone line can receive a call with the caller ID information from the telephone line without a contention.
Conventionally, various informing systems have been proposed as an informing system for informing of an abnormal condition of an information processing system. For example, Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 8-314761 discloses a system setting responsible groups corresponding to abnormal conditions in an information processing system, setting priorities of plural persons to be called in the responsible group and a device to be called that is used for calling each person to be called, informing a person to be called by the device to be called in accordance with the priorities when an abnormal condition occurs, and informing another person of the next priority if there is no response.
However, in the conventional informing system, the setting is fixed concerning the person to be called, the priority of the person to be called and the device to be called for calling each person to be called. Therefore, though a person to be called is assigned corresponding to a day of the week and a time zone in the responsible group actually, the person having the highest priority in the responsible group is called. As a result, there is a waste in that the person having the highest priority is temporarily informed and then communicates with a proper person to be called who is assigned to the day of the week and the time zone.
In addition, since the information processing system usually works 24 hours, a person to be called who is assigned to the highest priority may be called at midnight or in a holiday and has to be always tense.
Moreover, since the setting of the device to be called and the setting of call number are fixed as explained above, even if there are different apparatuses by which the person to be called wishes to be informed in accordance with the time zone, only a preset specific device to be called is informed. For example, when the person wishes to be informed by a telephone on a desk during office hours and by a mobile phone after the hours, the undesired mobile phone may be informed during office hours if the mobile phone is set as the device to be called.
An object of the present invention is to provide an informing system that can quickly inform an optimum person to be called of a failure, if any failures occur in an information processing system by informing a device to be called that is assigned to the time zone, efficiently and without a waste.
A system according to the present invention is an informing system for informing of a failure using a communication line, when a failure occurs in an information processing system (a main system) 11. The informing system comprises operation monitoring means 13 for detecting a failure in the information processing system 11 and for grasping the failure situation, time monitoring means 17 for acquiring a failure time when the failure of information processing system 11 detected by the operation monitoring means 13 occurs, device-to-be-called lists 22, 23 containing the types of devices to be called and the priorities of the call numbers used for calling in accordance with the failure situation and the failure time, list updating means 18 for updating the device-to-be-called lists 22, 23, and calling means 16 for searching the device-to-be-called lists 22, 23 using the failure situation and the failure time as keys and for calling by designating the type and the call number of the device to be called.
The informing system according to the present invention can be located in the place where the information processing system 11 is located, in the vicinity of the place, or at a distance from the place.